Beaucoup

[chknltl]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=ms-android-verizon&gl=us&source=android-browser-goto&sky=mrdr&q=beaucoup+meaning&revid=1164519210&sa=X&ei=gyAmUMrJBMikiQKIxoGgCQ&ved=0CGgQ1QIoBA&biw=615&bih=369

and

http://m.urbandictiona…

Back in the late 60s-early 70s this word was in it's most common use here in America. More often than not I recall it being written as 'boo koo' or 'boo coup' and pronounced about half the time as 'bow kew'. The word is French meaning many. I suspect that the citizenry of Viet Nam picked it up from the French military during their disastrous time there. We replaced the French and our soldiers picked it up from the Vietnamese. The word then traveled here via our returning vets and gained some popularity for about a decade, that is from my perspective in Washington State near an army base. Then it all but died out around here for the next forty years. Recently I have been hearing it used among younger people and now here in the DU I have today seen it as 'buku'.

There is no real point to my observation, I just found the local history and recent resurgence of the word fascinating.

[OriginalGeek]

1. this guy has been selling boo coo minivans

for years in central Florida

he's a local celebrity!

[chknltl]

2. wow. Some guys are cuckoo for Coco Puffs.

This guy cuckoo for....well I think he is just beaucoup cuckoo. (Kind of charming actually, I can see why he is a local celebrity).

[OriginalGeek]

3. I used to see him on late night TV all the time

but I just realized I haven't seen any of his commercials in years.

[monmouth]

5. I think he is now the governor of New Jersey..n/t

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. merci beaucoup

for the links

[trof]

6. Look up "French Indo-China". French was the official language.

It was a French colony.
If you wanted to do business, you learned French and in a damned hurry.
The Vietnamese rebelled against their French masters after WWII.
The French got their asses kicked, so we decided to take up the 'Domino Theory' cause.
That didn't end well either.

[Major Nikon]

7. It was a French colony for almost a century

The truly sad part was that Ho Chi Minh asked for Truman's support after WWII in their independence from France. Had the US supported him, they were prepared to allow the US to establish bases inside Vietnam and the war would have never happened. The US was worried that the socialists would take over France if the US didn't support them in their efforts to reestablish their colonies. The rest is history.

[trof]

8. And I think Minh was promised independence post war.

But we/they reneged.

[chknltl]

9. I read about that.

That reading was 20+ years ago. If memory serves, Ho Chi Minh admired the American model of democracy, even patterning a Constitution after ours.

I knew that Truman chose to support France over Minh's proposals but I never knew why.